You can lead a horse to water, but if it’s wise, I think,until you’ve added malt and hops, you cannot make it drink.

When my mother read my post Menagerie (Part 1) she reminded me of this facetious version of the well-known saying. Do horses really prefer beer?

Water downmeans dilute and can be used figuratively.

Pouring oil on troubled watersis a way of making the waves smaller. As long as the oil floats on the water it could be helpful. There have been too many disasters worldwide where enormous quantities of oil have been accidentally spilled. If someone tries to help reconcile others who cannot agree, they may bepouring oil on troubled waters.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.sometimes things or systems need to be reorganised. This ought to result in an improvement unless the object of the change has been forgotten, in which casethe baby might have been thrown out with the bathwater.

I feel it in my water.Our bodies are mainly water, but when people refer to their water, they usually mean urine. It is an expression used when people have a feeling that something is going to happen.

Take more water with itis advice given to someone who stumbles, whether they have been drinking alcohol or not.

Come hell or high water.Whatever happens. High water is another expression for high tide, but some tides are higher than others.

Water finds the lowest course.This is true. Liquids do not flow uphill without a pump.

Waterfall

Watertight.If something is watertight it does not leak. If an argument is watertight, no-one can find (or pick) any “holes” in it.

Still waters run deep.This is a proverb about quiet people having profound thoughts. In a river there may be deep pools where the surface of the water is undisturbed.

If someone has an idea others might try to discourage them from acting on it. Pouring cold water on it is an appropriate idiom here.

Skating on thin ice.Anyone who has read “White Boots” by Noel Streatfield knows how dangerous it is to skate on thin ice. Sometimes a person’s actions or words can be as perilous.

The tip of the icebergis the part which is visible above the sea. As a metaphor it is the first part of something which may turn out to be much bigger.

Letting off steamis a way of reducing pressure from a boiler, for instance. People need to let off steam too.

Steam locomotives have toget up a head of steam before they are ready to go. A head is a measure of the pressure.

If someone is very angry he may be said to havesteam coming out of his ears.

Water, ice and steam are the liquid, solid and vapour states of the same compound H2O. It is an amazing substance, essential to life on earth and it has properties unlike any other substance. For example, when it is cooled down towards its freezing point, it reaches the anomalous temperature of water at which point it has its maximum density. (4 degrees Celsius) On further cooling the molecules begin to arrange themselves to form the crystalline structure of ice, which is less dense than water. The fact that ice floats on water is crucial to pond-life.

In the Gospel of John Chapter 4 verse 14 (NIV) Jesus tells a Samaritan woman“whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

[…] In real life the best example I can think of is the amazing compound, which is less dense in solid form than as a liquid. When a liquid is cooled, it becomes denser and then begins to solidify at its freezing point. The resulting solid form is denser than the liquid. But for one amazing compound this des not happen. At first it does what would be expected but suddenly at a particular temperature (4 degrees Celsius) the molecules begin to rearrange themselves into a crystalline structure, which is less closely packed. Then the crystals become solid at zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). So if you did not already know what this amazing substance is, you have probably guessed by now. It is water. […]